THE CRANKY OLD MAN
Random thoughts and stuff from a cranky old man. Humor (maybe)and satire, mostly stuff from a confused head.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

What If?

What If?

The other
night, returning home from a dinner party, we got pulled over by a cop.It was about 10:00, Mrs. Cranky was driving
and we had no idea why the cop pulled us over.Mrs. C is a good driver, we were on local roads and not speeding, and Mrs.
C did not have anything to drink…she almost never does.

We pulled
over as far as possible on a narrow road, and were quite frankly a bit of
a traffic hazard.Mrs. C had her
license, registration and proof of insurance ready to hand over to the officer
as soon as he approached the car.

“The reason I stopped you, is you
failed to signal a left turn back there.”

“Oh…OK.”

The officer
took the documents and went back to his car.

I didn’t
even know what turn he was talking about.

“When did you make a left?”

“Back at the corner by the drug
store.”

“Oh…Wait, back at the
stop light in a left turn only lane, and the light has a left turn arrow before
any other traffic can move.”

“Yup.”

“Why do you need to
signal?It would be illegal to not
turn! Plus that light was over a quarter of a mile back.”

“I don’t know, he was following us for a while, but I’m not going to
argue.”

The officer
returned and handed Mrs. C a warning.

“I’m just going to issue you a
warning, be more careful in the future.”

That was it,
no biggie.I suspect the officer was
really just making random stops for minor infractions to see if anyone was
driving impaired or without a license, insurance or registration.

But the stop
did make me think, “What if we were black?”I’m pretty sure we would assume the stop was race related.If it were not the first time, one of us may
have taken an attitude.At that point, a
simple stop could escalate into a scene where the officer got nasty and perhaps
we took even more of an attitude.Bing
bang boom, simple stop becomes a major incident.

The police
often make nuisance stops.I believe
they probably make profile stops on blacks disproportionate to stops on white
people.The profiling might be on
cars.Perhaps blacks tend to drive cars
that police associate with crime.We
drive a big dark SUV, perhaps a preferred getaway car…or not.

Point is, on
Saturday we were stopped for a silly violation and were just given a
warning.Being white we had no reason to
suspect we were being unfairly targeted, if we were black I’m pretty sure we
would have thought differently.It is a
problem.It is a real problem of racial
profiling; it is also a problem of perception.

I do wonder
if we would have been given a ticket and not a warning if we were not
white.I can hear my African-American
readers very clearly, “Oh Hell yeah!”
I think they might be right.

This is an
issue that perhaps is not worth disrespecting the flag, but it
does need to be talked about and remedied.

BTW: The New
Jersey traffic regulations say, “No person
shall so turn any vehicle without giving an appropriate signal in the manner
hereinafter provided in the event any other traffic may be affected by such
movement.”

As
there was only one car at the intersection and we were in a left turn only lane
and turned when the traffic arrow allowed, I do not see how our turn affected
any other traffic.The only other car
was across from us and still had a red signal when we got the green arrow to
turn.

I
Think if we were given a summons, we would have disputed it and we would have
won.

P.S. To the asshole
that rolled down his window and laughed at us while we were stopped, “FUCK YOU, we just got a warning…DICKWAD!!”

If the police here gave tickets for failure to signal turns they''d be doing nothing else. I'm actually surprised when I see a turn signal from a vehicle. As to the rest, dunno. I think Hilary above is pretty much correct.

Oh my, I didn't see that ATTITUDE coming (the P.S. above). I'm white, I have 2 adopted grandkids that are black (one has albinism which means her skin is white, the grandson is dark complected) and one great grand who's father was black but she has pale skin. I've already seen the stares, etc. from whites and blacks. HOWEVER, overall, black people have been less judgmental than whites, particularly white children. Now why would a white CHILD already be prejudiced against a black child, a child that looks different from them, a disabled child? I fear for what my grands and great grand are going to experience the older they become. What's going to happen when the white kids grow up and one of my grands makes a mistake...my heart is already breaking.

You're probably right. But I've also gone on "ride-along's" with cops just to see what they do, and they DO make stops hoping to find a whiff of a funny smell *wink*, or booze breath, or some sort of visible, suspicious looking stuff (stolen?) in the seat. My guess is they're looking to make a name for themselves by being super observant. This is going to be a tough problem to put to bed. Sadly.

They have a tough job that i know i could not do, so i hate to try to second-guess them. Yes, i also think, if you'd been black, you would have had a harder time of it and been given a ticket, and that's sad.

I was pulled over some years ago between Fort Walton and Crestview Fl. He said I was going to slow I was going sixty in a sixty five mile zone. I just got a warning but he didn't stop the ones going Seventy five and eighty. I think it was because I was from Covington County in Alabama :)

I drive a white 15 passenger Chevy van, with the pain chipping off the back end, dents in the side doors, and blacked out back windows (so the sun doesn't get to my kids) -- and I have been informed by my kids many times that our van is a "creeper van". What is that, I asked. They said it's a van that looks like it kidnaps children. I said, what? Me? Shoot...I have too many of my own kids to want to kidnap other children. But still, my kids insist that our van is a scary vehicle when I drive slowly into neighborhood. And you know, they are right. When I drive into a neighborhood full of playing children (and their parents in the driveways) everyone stops and moves just a bit closer to the house. And not too long ago, a police car passed me (going the opposite way) and then did a quick Uturn and got right behind me and pulled me over. What? I thought. I wasn't doing anything wrong. So when I stopped the car, there were two police officers in the police car and one on each side, they peered into my van to check each row of seats. I had at least seven of my kids with me, so the kids were wondering what the heck?? Anyway, they never gave me a reason as to why they pulled me over. I think they muttered something about my window tint, but they let me go off without even a warning fix-it ticket for the tint, so I really don't think that was it. I believe they pulled me over simply because they profile white creeper vans. Total vehicle discrimination.

I feel sad reading this and especially the comment by Theanne Crossett. I am almost glad that I won't be in this crazy world much longer. Situations like this must occur in the UK so I'm fortunate that I live in a quiet area where not much happens.

It does amaze me that there are people who react so badly to Back Lives Matter. I am sure that everyone can give an example of having been judged on the basis of a physical characteristic, but imagine if such a thing defined one's whole experience.

I think Mrs. Cranky was wise just to cooperate and not argue. Better to take up the matter in a court of law. Hubby did that with a ticket he didn't think he should have gotten; showed up at court and then the police officer didn't, ticket dropped.

I think I mentioned it before but son (white) got profiled out in his youth by the car he drove (older Cadillac). He got stopped a lot for this or for that. Most were "bogus" stops, they really didn't have anything to pull him over for but they wanted to check his car to see if he had anything in it (and he never did; he was too smart). I was a passenger in the car with him one night and the police shined their lights into it while he was driving. Minute they saw me in the front seat, they just continued driving. I can guarantee you if anyone else had been in the front seat, he more than likely would have been pulled over. I can't imagine what it might have been like if he was a person of color.

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I am 70 years old, I have 4 children 45,42,40 and 18;and 5 grandchildren 13-6
. Divorced twice, married three times. I worked on Wall Street for 40 years after graduating from Lafayette College in 1968. I have turned to writing as since retirement I needed something to tell people "What the F*** I do." Published one book "Maybe It's Just Me!" available at Amazon, soon to release my second, "I Used To Be Stupid."
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